Month: May 2022
5 Things You *Probably* Didn’t Know About Jo Nesbø
1. He’s the most successful Norwegian author of all time.
As of March 2014, Nesbø has sold more than 3 million copies of his novels in Norway, and his work had been translated into more than 50 languages. As of 2021, he has sold around 50 million copies worldwide.
2. He wrote a children’s book series.
Nesbø published his first children’s book Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder in 2007. The series is set in Oslo, Norway, and follows the story of Doctor Proctor, a crazy professor waiting for his big break, his next-door neighbor Lisa and her peculiar friend Nilly, a short redheaded boy. Nesbø published the 5th book in the series in 2016. You can download the first three books in the series from the Libby app!
3. He almost played professional soccer directly out of high school.
As a high schooler, Nesbø’s greatest passion was playing soccer. He made his first appearance for Molde, a Premier League team in Norway, at the age of seventeen, and had plans to go on and play professionally in England for the Tottenham Hotspurs after graduation. Unfortunately, a knee injury stopped those plans. Instead, he went into the military and served for three years.
4. He graduated from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.
After his military service, Nesbø enrolled in the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration to study economics and financial analysis. After graduation, he became a stockbroker at a brokerage firm in Norway. Soon, he got tired of his day job and began writing songs in his free time.
5. He’s the main vocalist and songwriter for a Norwegian rock band.
APLD’s New Director
Congratulations to Leslie Sutherlin, the Aurora Public Library District’s new director! For 30 years, Sutherlin has been part of the South Dearborn Community Schools’ family, working as the District School Librarian, but now she will be directing the APLD branches at Aurora, Dillsboro, and the Aurora Depot Local History Library.
Raised in Dillsboro and an alum of South Dearborn High School, Sutherlin brings familiarity with Dearborn County to the job. Her parents, Paul and Karen Filter, retired from Filter Funeral Homes about 17 years ago, but have continued to be active members of the Dillsboro community. Sutherlin grew up in a home just down the street from Dillsboro Public Library.
Though Dillsboro marks her “hometown,” Sutherlin also spent time living in Aurora at the Filter Funeral Home location on Fourth Street. During her summers home from Butler University and for many years after she started working in education, she enjoyed her time in downtown Aurora, just blocks from Hillforest.
As newlyweds, Sutherlin and her husband started their married life and family in Aurora, but they now live in Milan with their three children: Elizabeth, Sam, and Parker. She is active in St. Paul Lutheran Church in Milan, Milan Dollars for Scholars, and Aurora Tri Kappa.
Professionally, Sutherlin has been a Teacher Librarian, but her participation in the Indiana Library Federation (ILF) has allowed her to become familiar with public library concerns and operations. She has served as President of the ILF and has served on many committees, most recently the Youth Services committee. Aside from ILF, she has served on the Council of State School Library Supervisors, and she helped create the Mackin Hoosier-Buckeye Shared Digital Collection, which brings thousands of ebooks to students of even the smallest schools across Indiana and Ohio for a reasonable price.
While only starting at Aurora Public Library District just a short while ago, many big plans are on the horizon for APLD. Summer reading kicks off on June 4 with free Donut Day—the first 50 people to sign up for Summer Reading get a free donut. Please continue checking our website for more updates about Summer Reading programming. The Local History Library at the Depot is also undergoing a makeover; the space is expected to reopen in August, after getting a new paint job and some updated organization.
When asked about her new position, Sutherlin commented, “While I will definitely miss my wonderful students and colleagues at SD, this is a great opportunity to serve those communities in a broader, perhaps more impactful way.”
Local History Library Grand Reopening!
The Aurora Public Library District has big plans in store for the Local History Library! We know you miss the Depot, but the building needs to remain closed for the next three months to put our plans into action. So don’t worry, because we’ll be back before you know it!
Some projects we have planned for the Local History Library include reorganization of reference items for easier patron access, added shelving for reference items, added tables and chairs for programs and meetings, a fresh coat of paint, and an overall rearrangement of shelves, desks, and tables to make the most of the space. Our main goal is to increase the usability of the building and make the space more user friendly and versatile for you, our patrons! So stay tuned, because in August the Local History Library is reopening for all your research, local history, and genealogy needs. If you need assistance before then, please feel free to reach out to us by phone (812-926-0646) or in person at the Aurora or Dillsboro Libraries.
The Local History Library will be re-opening on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the third Saturday of the month beginning in August. Be sure to check out our events page or our Facebook and Instagram pages in the upcoming months for programs scheduled at the Local History Library once the building reopens. We can’t wait to see you again!
Bleak Books with Olivia: House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
Have you ever read a book all the way through just to close it for the last time and say “wow, that was bleak”? Well, I’m here to make the case for those dark, dreary, haunting, and disturbing reads that keep you up at night long after you put them down. Welcome to Bleak Books with Olivia, your resident creepy book lover at the Aurora Public Library District.
Let’s switch gears for a minute, shall we? I think it’s time to make the case for teen fiction. I turn 24 in a week, but I still love to read teen fiction. Although it’s not aimed at my age group, recent young adult novels have evolved into darker, scarier, and deeper stories that grip you from start to finish, and the only time House of Hollow doesn’t stick out is when it’s blending into the edgy new class of young adult books.
Iris Hollow just wants to be a normal seventeen-year-old with a normal life, and she does her best to fade into the background at school and in public, but her normal dream is far from reality. When Iris was a child, she and her two sisters, Grey and Vivi, went missing for a month and returned apparently unharmed, but certainly… different. All three sisters’ hair turned the color of snow, matching scars appear on their throats, and each one of them has a new ability more strange and terrifying than they could have imagined. Where did they go? None of the sisters remember. Almost a decade later, Vivi and Grey have left home to live their extravagantly wild lifestyles, leaving Iris with her overprotective widowed mother and nothing but memories of her dead father, who took his life shortly after his daughters returned home.
Iris is finally settling into her seemingly quiet and normal life when her oldest sister, Grey, goes missing. Vivi returns to help Iris search for their sibling, but as they look, the clues they find become increasingly strange, terrifying, and dangerous. Who took Grey, and where did she go? The truth will leave you haunted.
This book was incredibly morbid, haunting, and beautiful all at once. The Hollow sisters were so interesting to read about and were written like real, honest young women. They were tough, honest, imperfect, and brutally beautiful. I cannot recommend this book enough.
So next time you think you’ve run out of things to read, check the teen shelf! You never know what you may find or what may spark your interest. Don’t let the label scare you.
Thank you for joining me on this dissection of one of my favorite Bleak Books. I hope to see you again sometime soon! Please take a look in the Adult and Teen Fiction section at the Aurora and Dillsboro Public Libraries for my favorite Bleak Books, or check out our e-books on Libby. If you are looking for this specific title, you can use our catalog to locate it or ask a librarian for help! If you meet me in the library and have any Bleak Books suggestions, please let me know! I’m always looking for a new book to disrupt my life for a couple of weeks.